This Burlington band enjoys singing the blues

It may have been five years since its last album, but some things are worth the wait with Corey Lueck and the Smoke Wagon Blues Band’s latest release, It Ain’t Easy.

Although regularly performing its signature blues sounds, the Burlington band waited a few years until they had the ability to release a quality album.

“Time flies when you’re busy and have the blues,” said Lueck, vocalist. “We’ve been performing festival and club dates year round as well as writing, promoting, recording and having fun. Since our last album, it seems like every time we’d get a break in the action my phone would ring with something new to focus on but being a musician, that’s not such a bad thing.”

Over the years, the band’s music has evolved but Lueck said that is part of the genre.

“Because blues (music) speaks through feeling and the human condition, our music is always evolving and progressing along with our influences and experiences,” he explained. “When we first started out in Hess Village, we were known as the Grateful Dead of the blues — we’d just get on a groove and jam it out, sometimes for a whole set. People loved that about us and it gave us quite the reputation. We started to dig deeper in our blues influences, such as Little Willie John or Bobby Bland, and it opened up a whole new world of songwriting for us and how we wanted to tell our stories with conviction and honesty. We feel like we started the process on our last album but really didn’t own it until now.”

Over the years, the band has performed with a variety of musicians, which has added to the band’s diversity. The songs on the new album were written in such a collaboration between Lueck and Mike Stubbs that Lueck said the band should be called Corey Lueck, Mike Stubbs and the Smoke Wagon Blues Band.

“We’ve developed this large family of talented Smoke Wagon Blues Band alumni that has really enhanced our own playing and given us a real diverse sound moving forward,” noted Lueck. “The new album has a little bit of everything: classic, heart-breaking rhythm and blues, low-down righteous blues, hypnotizing swamp boogies and total barn burners. Mike Stubbs and I are joined by Canadian blues sensations: Gord Aeichele, Jesse O’Brien, Robin Banks, Steve Sherman, Nick Succi and many more for over 60 minutes of new blues.”

The album has already been nominated for the Hamilton Music Awards’ Best Blues Album of the Year award. The band’s music has reached new heights in charts locally and internationally, reaching the second spot on the Canadian Roots and Blues Charts (No. 1 for blues) and 13th in the USA Top 50 Blues Chart.

“We are very humbled to be getting such great play on stations around the world as well as the CBC, Galaxie and Dawg here at home,” said Lueck. “You certainly don’t become rich being a blues musician, but seeing our songs do so well and get so much radio play around the globe makes us smile every day.”

In an attempt to bring smiles to underprivileged children, the Smoke Wagon Blues Band just released its first Christmas song with proceeds going to the Make a Wish Foundation.

“Name your price and you can download Candy Cane Swing from our website,” said Lueck.